A Normal Sensor Calibration Method Based on an Extended Kalman Filter for Robotic Drilling

To enhance the perpendicularity accuracy in the robotic drilling system, a normal sensor calibration method is proposed to identify the errors of the zero point and laser beam direction of laser displacement sensors simultaneously. The procedure of normal adjustment of the robotic drilling system is introduced firstly. Next the measurement model of the zero point and laser beam direction on a datum plane is constructed based on the principle of the distance measurement for laser displacement sensors. An extended Kalman filter algorithm is used to identify the sensor errors. Then the surface normal measurement and attitude adjustments are presented to ensure that the axis of the drill bit coincides with the normal at drilling point. Finally, simulations are conducted to study the performance of the proposed calibration method and experiments are carried out on a robotic drilling system. The simulation and experimental results show that the perpendicularity of the hole is within 0.2 degrees. They also demonstrate that the proposed calibration method has high accuracy of parameter identification and lays a basis for high-precision perpendicularity accuracy of drilling in the robotic drilling system.